Close

    Among Other Things: An Evening with Tony Cokes and Rindon Johnson

    Wed, Oct 30, 2019, 7pm

    • Sponsors
    • Related

    This screening brings together two recent video works by Tony Cokes and Rindon Johnson. Cokes’ Testament A: mf fka k-p x ke rip (2019), against a background of solid colors and beats, reads writer and filmmaker Kodwo Eshun’s “Mark Fisher Memorial Lecture” (2018). Johnson's Among other things... (2019) is a video poem with original and found footage with closed captioning. Different in methodology and structure, both pieces speak to “the work of mourning,” as Cokes quotes Derrida, the “practice of joy” à la Eshun, and the labor of making common particular indignations for the wellbeing of all.

    The screenings will be followed by a conversation between Tony Cokes, Rindon Johnson, and Sohrab Mohebbi. The program is organized in conjunction with Searching the Sky for Rain, on view at SculptureCenter through December 16, 2019. SculptureCenter will be open at 6pm for those who wish to view the exhibition before the program. This program is free and open to the public but RSVP is required.

    Screenings:
    Rindon Johnson, Among other things (nearby occasions or 8 acts for Jeremy): What should we call this form of existence: a constant vista where from one view one can see the cage of one binding state and from another view, another binding state? Come here and have a taste (play to be played). Hadi writes: All night I dreamed of these lines and couldn’t help it other than believing that dreaming these lines mean I should send them to you; it is coming from an old poem that made sense to me when I saw the cage inside the cage / Birds are free of cages, and cages are free of birds / Where have you came from that causes you to be so free / Although every birds voice is a kind of crying for end of the day / You must sing more since your cry more sounds like the beginning of the day. / I think birds are standing for people, but I’m not sure what the cage stands for. You must know. (I don’t.) Maybe there are things that we should become accustomed to not seeing or knowing (I entered the tunnel of my own will) I play the song over and over; without beginning and without end., 2019
    26:34 minutes

    Tony Cokes, Testament A: mf fka k-p x ke rip, 2019
    35:22 minutes

    The event is at capacity. Seating is first come, first served. Standing room may be available depending on turnout.

    Sponsors

    Searching the Sky for Rain is made possible with financial support from the Mondriaan Fund, the public cultural funding organization focusing on visual arts and cultural heritage. Additional support is provided as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.

    Lead underwriting support of SculptureCenter’s Exhibition Fund has been generously provided by the Kraus Family Foundation with additional support by Toby Devan Lewis.

    SculptureCenter’s programs and operating support is provided by the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; the National Endowment for the Arts; Danielle and Drew Anderman; Andreas Beroutsos and Abigail Hirschhorn; Carol Bove and Gordon Terry; Irene and Allen Brill; Laren C. and Jesse M. Brill; Lee and Robert K. Elliott; Elizabeth and Adrian Ellis; Fred Wilson; the A. Woodner Fund; New York City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer; and contributions from our Board of Trustees and Director’s Circle. Additional funding is provided by the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation and contributions from many generous individuals.